Pittsburgh Public Theater, Steeltown's major resident professional company, announced July 10 that Mark Jacoby, a veteran of Broadway's recent Show Boat revival and Ragtime, will play Cervantes and Don Quixote in the January 2003 PPT revival of Man of La Mancha.
The Tony Award-nominated Jacoby was last season at Pittsburgh Public in You Can't Take It With You. Coincidentally, his Ragtime castmate, Brian Stokes Mitchell, will begin a Broadway run of Man of La Mancha in November.
Dirty Blonde, Claudia Shear's play that is part modern love story between fans of Mae West, and part bio of West, will close the 2002-2003 season, June 5-July 6, 2003.
On July 10, Pamela Berlin was announced as director of the upcoming Driving Miss Daisy, and a new order for the season slate was revealed.
The 28th Pittsburgh Public season includes:
- Much Ado About Nothing, directed by PPT artistic director Ted Pappas, Sept. 26-Oct. 27.
- Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy, directed by Pamela Berlin, Nov. 7-Dec. 8.
- A visit by Reduced Shakespeare Company, offering more classic comic abridgements in The Reducers: All The Great Books, along with an all-time favorite, The History of America (abridged), Dec. 17-Jan. 5, 2003.
- Spalding Gray: Morning, Noon and Night, written, performed by the famed monologist, Jan. 9-10, 2003, co presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
- The musical, Man of La Mancha, by Dale Wasserman (book), Mitch Leigh (music) and Joe Darion (lyrics), directed and choreographed by Ted Pappas, Jan. 30 March 2, 2003.
- Michael Healy's celebrated Canadian play, The Drawer Boy, about an actor who visits a farm for research for a play, and the unique men he meets there, March 13-April 13, 2003.
- August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, the tale of family pride and heritage, set in Pittsburgh, April 25-May 25, 2003. It's the only Wilson play that has not been produced by the Public.
- Claudia Shear's Tony Award-nominated Dirty Blonde, June 5-July 6, 2003.
